


Swallow Her Whole

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Fireside Tales [33]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Off-screen Character Death, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 23:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're all shadows, she and Severus and Regulus, and without their Lily, without their Light, how can they hope to succeed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swallow Her Whole

**Author's Note:**

> Hepzebah Nott, 1 November 1981  
> Prompt: Absence  
> Alternate Universe: White Rose

It feels like she's swallowed knives, or perhaps one of Alexander's straight razors, when she sees the front page of the Daily Prophet. She can't even scream for the pain, and Hepzebah flings the paper away from her as she shoves her chair back from the breakfast table. Ignoring Theodore's startled cry and Alexander rising to try to follow her.

She's stumbling up the path to their shared cottage, their retreat from the world, before she properly registers she's left the house she shares with her husband and young son. Before she gets to the door, she already knows the truth. Feels the absence in the wards they'd woven together like a punch to the chest, falling to her hands and knees with a choked cry.

How long she's there, crouched just inside the wards that protect the house, she doesn't know. All she's certain of is hands on her shoulders, on her face, and a voice that is raw with grief murmuring, begging her to at least move. Severus, knowing too late the same news she had this morning.

They cling to each other until they can manage to get to their feet and stumble into the house. She'll have to return to her husband's house eventually, but not yet. Not tonight. Not when she can't think past the pain and grief.

Not when Lily is dead, and the world is all the darker for it. Shadows that claw out from her heart to swallow her whole, and how she can fight them when the light is gone, she doesn't know. They're all shadows, she and Severus and Regulus, and without their Lily, without their Light, how can they hope to succeed?

**Author's Note:**

> Hepzebah Morgan was a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts, and friendly with Regulus Black prior to her first year. She became friends with Lily Evans, and they, along with Severus and Regulus, created the White Rose Club, with plans to change the world. Hepzebah is not entirely sane or stable, and she's very fond of the Dark Arts for the sake of the knowledge, and the use of it, though she'd always been careful about her use of them around Lily.
> 
> I'm not certain if there was anything beyond a strong friendship between them, but certainly after Lily's death, Hepzebah did not last long, and suicided in April 1982 at the cottage the four of them had bought together.


End file.
